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It’s essentially an extra life, which is a godsend in a game like this. If you die with this Artifact in your inventory, you’ll immediately be brought to life in the exact area you died. That Artifact is the Astronaut Figurine, which is unlocked after the first House sequence. However, there’s an Artifact that has saved my bacon so many times and allowed me to defeat impossible boss battles. These aren’t actually permanent (they’re gone after the Cycle during which you first obtain them, just like any other Artifact). The Most Important Artifact To Get In Every Cycle? The Astronaut Figurine (And The Watch Too)Įvery time you complete a cinematic House sequence in Returnal, you’ll obtain a special memento Artifact. Technically, there are a few other Artifacts that carry over after death, but these are just traversal items like the Icarian grapnel grappling hook that you obtain through the narrative. If you die in Returnal, the only thing that you keep are Ethers (but there’s a cap limit of 30, so you can’t exactly hoard them too much). Of all these, only the Ethers will carry on after death.
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Artifacts: (one-off items that offer special bonuses and benefits).Atropian Keys: (used to open locked doors and chests).Obolites: (in-game currency used to purchase Artifacts and items, or as the game calls it, to ‘fabricate’ them).Returnal features several obtainable items, resources and materials. The Only Item You Keep After Death Are Ethers Of course, you’ll need the Atropian Blade first, but you’ll obtain this quite early in the game. Melee attacks can be performed with the Square button. It’s annoying, sure, but you need to get up close and personal for enemies with red shields. Whatever it is, you can’t kill enemies with red shields without using the Atropian Blade melee attack. I don’t remember if the game told me to do this or if I learnt this myself. There’s Only One Way To Dispatch Enemies With Red Shields: Up-Close Melee You’ll still take damage if you dash through the blue lasers. You should always dodge the blue-coloured lasers, not dash through it. One last important thing to note is that while you can pretty much dash through almost any enemy projectile or laser, there are a few exceptions. Don’t worry, time your dashes right and you won’t take any damage whatsoever. The only way to avoid taking damage sometimes is to dodge into the lasers. The I-Frames applies when trying to complete platforming puzzles and challenges in Returnal too, as most of these involve moving or static lasers. This is especially true when the enemy projectile is more laser-like and not the usual orbs. This is also much easier to pull off than trying to dodge every single projectile. Why? In a lot of cases, it’s simply better to dash into the enemy projectile instead. My first instinct in Returnal was to keep dashing and thereby dodge every enemy projectile hurtling towards me. This is extremely important to keep note of and essential to survive. It took me a while to realise this but after playing for hours, I was finally able to fully exploit the dashing mechanic in Returnal. In other games, this happens when dodging or rolling, which usually applies to action-heavy games like Dark Souls and yes, Returnal. In some games, this happens directly after respawning, allowing for a brief ‘safe’ moment. I-frames (or Invincibility Frames) are the period of time (measured in frames) during which a character cannot be damaged. The dash in Returnal has an incredible amount of I-frames. Oh, and that actually relates to my next point: You’re Invincible When Dashing Plus, dashing is probably the most important single action in the entire game (next to the trigger buttons, of course).
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Take advantage of traversal items like the Icarian Grapnel grappling hook to increase your mobility. The folks at Housemarque have done a great job in ensuring that Selene has great mobility. There are a lot of covers in Returnal, but most of them can break (like pillars) so it’s always a good idea to keep moving. That may sound obvious, but it’s an easy mistake to make especially if you’re used to playing third-person cover shooters. The first piece of advice that I have for Returnal players is to always keep moving and never to stand still. Whatever You Do, Keep Moving And Keep Dashing